


Anywhere

by Insomniac_with_dreams



Series: Beskar and Kyber [8]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: (always), Cuddling, Din jet packing away from responsibility faster then you can say Darksaber, Fluff, Force Ghosts, Force-Sensitive Children, Foul-Mouthed R2-D2 (Star Wars), He gets it, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, M/M, Mentioned Darth Vader, POV Din Djarin, Protective Din Djarin, Smitten Din Djarin, Smitten Luke Skywalker, Tired Luke Skywalker, Touch-Starved Din Djarin, Worried Din Djarin, din doesn't know who he is lol, i have...plans for them, oh boy, omg neither is that, that isn't a tag..., they gotta stop stressing him out, we ain't vibing with Gideon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:02:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28996425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insomniac_with_dreams/pseuds/Insomniac_with_dreams
Summary: “We should bury the dead.”“That’s a lot of people Cara,” Din says softly. He didn’t disagree though. The bodies of the storm troopers and the other crew had laid in unrest long enough. Din had no pity for the empire, but if the bodies were left they would begin to stink.“We don’t even have to bury them I guess. We could just pile them up and let the local fauna take care of them.”“No.” This planet was where Din first offered himself to someone in a way he never has. He doesn’t want it sullied by death. He will probably never return to this planet again, the grass and water will drift into pleasant memory. The warmth and the feeling of Luke’s beating heart against his would be kept close to him. “We’ll bury them.”
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda & Luke Skywalker, Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker
Series: Beskar and Kyber [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2065137
Comments: 20
Kudos: 451





	Anywhere

**Author's Note:**

> The beautiful little poem you are about to read before this installment was written by SleepingReader in my comments and I needed everyone to read how lovely they are.
> 
> Thank you for your words.

Silver and orange in my spear  
While I wait for you to appear  
Sparks melding with the stars  
While I watch you from afar  
My child mimicking the sounds  
Of this living planet all around  
Something haunts your gaze  
So fold yourself in my embrace  
Don't look behind  
Bury the dead  
We aren't done running yet.

~SleepingReader

~*~*~*~*~*~

It’s just like the top of the mountain with Grogu. Luke is gone, blocked from him by stone and something else that Din will never be able to get through. It’s just like the mountain. Cara had circled the monolith type building twice, one way and then the other. There was no way in, and no way out. It was like Luke turned to dusk and walked through the stone. Din has Grogu held tightly in his arms, refusing to let him touch the stone. He can’t let Grogu follow Luke, he can’t lose him again. Can’t lose them both.

“Mando. Stop worrying, I can hear it from here.” Cara drops to the ground next to him. He’s sitting staring at the rock where Luke had disappeared. Grogu is for once putting up quite the fight against din’s arms. He wants to go to the monolith, little whimpers falling from his lips as he reaches for it.

“He’s just gone though.” Din murmurs. 

Cara pulls up some of the long grass, stripping it in her hands and letting it blow away on the wind. “He’ll be back.”

Din glares at her. He wants to argue. Wants to sit on the ground like a stubborn child and wait until Luke comes back out. 

“How do you know that?” Din snaps. Cara looks over at him an unimpressed frown on her face. “Sorry.” 

She watches him in that careful way that makes him feel like she sees through the layers of protection he wears. 

“What are you going to do Mando?” Cara flicks her chin towards the other Mandalorians. They sit at the edge of the cliff helmets off quiet conversation flowing between them.

“I’m going with Luke.”

Cara’s eyebrows jump, “You are?”

“Yes.”

“What about,” She glances over at Bo-Katan before nodding to the sword strapped to Din’s hip. He brushes his fingers against it.

“I-I don’t know.” he hadn’t thought about it. Too caught up in the stomach swooping feelings of being around Luke. Cara fiddles with her rifle, eyes moving back and forth along the horizon. 

“I think you’ve gotten yourself mixed up in a hell of a lot more than you thought you would.” she smirks at him, but a hint of worry still pulls down the corners of her mouth. He can’t help but agree. There isn’t much he’s sure of anymore. His ship is gone, his creed broken and he’s found himself in something akin to love with a man. The galaxy has shifted around him, thrust him out of the shadow of tracking fobs and dark cantinas to the bright and overwhelming center of everything. A part of him despises it, calls for him to leave, to _run._

“As long as I can stay with Grogu.” that he is sure of. Luke had given him a second chance, he’ll find something to do. Maybe take up bounty hunting again, protect Luke and Grogu wherever they end up. 

“You can’t ignore it forever Mando.” Cara’s warns, and Din knows. The sword is a heavy burden on him, the burden of what it means. Already had he forsaken his own people, already had he lost many of his brothers and sisters. If he were to become what the sword meant he- no. He can’t. Shaking his head he shifts Grogu to gnaw on his finger.

“This is almost over.” He says instead. “We have Gideon, and the doctor. Grogu will be safe from them.”

Grogu makes a gurgling purring noise when Cara runs a hand over his ear, “he should be.” face hardening again she takes her hand away, “We should bury the dead.”

“That’s a lot of people Cara,” Din says softly. He didn’t disagree though. The bodies of the storm troopers and the other crew had laid in unrest long enough. Din had no pity for the empire, but if the bodies were left they would begin to stink. 

“We don’t even have to bury them I guess. We could just pile them up and let the local fauna take care of them.”

“No.” This planet was where Din first offered himself to someone in a way he never has. He doesn’t want it sullied by death. He will probably never return to this planet again, the grass and water will drift into pleasant memory. The warmth and the feeling of Luke’s beating heart against his would be kept close to him. “We’ll bury them.”

Din presses his hand back to the stone as he passes. He doesn’t want to leave until he is sure Luke is not gone forever, Grogu’s soft hand on his arm reassures him. Before they walk back down the hill Din plants the spear in the soft earth. If Luke returns before they do. He'll have to bring it to Din.

They employ the help of the other Mandalorian. The younger, looks weary. Tired in a way Din can sympathize with. This exertion was not in the mission plan. Din swallows his discomfort and dislike for the other Mandalorians and tells her to drink from one of the many ponds they pass on their trek back to the ship. She watches him warily but does as she’s told, kneeling and drinking with greed. She looks better and offers him a quiet thank you as she brushes past him to regain her spot at Bo-Katan’s side.

Luke’s astromech is peeved when they land back on the ship. Its wheels around them beeping and jittering. Din scowls at it, side stepping it and threatening to push it over. Cara chuckles.

“What a dirty mouthed little thing,” She snorted. 

“You understand it?” Din grunts.

“Yeah. That happens when you actually let droids help.” She turns to walk backwards, “Luke seems mighty fond of it.” she winks and smirks before turning around again.

It’s a grueling task. They walk the hallways in pairs, meeting to pile the bodies they find. Din had relented and let Grogu stay with the astromech, unwilling to make him deal with the darkness of their job.

The people in the bacta tank are dead. The blue light that filled the tank is dark now and the bodies look rotted away already. Cara looks at them grimly before leaving them. They didn’t know what was in the tanks and none of them were willing to run the risk of exposing themselves to something foreign. 

The pile they have accumulated is large. Din finds it hard to look at and the women seem to share the same sentiment, turning their faces away. Mayfield's words to the imperial officer make their way back into Din’s mind as he looks at the gritty storm trooper armor.

“I’m taking a final sweep,” Cara grunts. She’s gone before Din can protest.

He walks back to find the astromech and Grogu. He knows he’s gone the wrong way when he finds himself in front of Gideon’s cell. The light above the door is a dull red and in a moment of panic Din wonders if the lack of power would affect the prison blocks integrity. He steps up to the door, hand on his blaster, reading over the flashing buttons on the side panel.

“I was wondering when they’d send you to me Din Djarin.” Gideon's voice calls out from the cell. He sounds lazy as he speaks, as if he’s just fine with being locked in his own brig.Din flinches at the use of his name, pulling his blaster from his holster and pointing it uselessly at the door. Gideon chuckles, “I feel for you Din, I truly do. Caught up in a mess, so naive to the galaxy around you. Does it bother you Din, to be so lost?”

“Stop saying my name,” Din hisses through clenched teeth. He feels more on edge than he has since before Grogu. An old itch he thought he had gotten rid of is crawling through his fingers as he clenches them around his blaster. 

Gideon laughs, “Why? Would you rather me call you a nickname given to you by the rest of the galaxy _Mando_.” The word on Gideon’s tongue said in his drawl sends a shiver down his spine. Gideon lets out a sigh, loud enough for Din to hear, “You probably think you’ve won.”

Din bristles, stepping closer to the door, “What are you fighting for? The empire is gone.”

Gideon scoffs, “Of course it’s gone. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool. I fight for order. Tell me Din,” his voice sounds higher now and Din wonders if he had been sitting only to stand, “Do you know what happened when the empire fell? Do you know how many planets were left in shambles because the empire had been supporting them? The Rebels left people stranded, livelihoods destroyed. Do you think they went back and helped them?”

“What does it matter? The Empire harmed every system it touched. Freedom was lost to the Empire. They replaced the order in those systems, bringing their own contained chaos. The galaxy is better with the Empire dead.”

“Did you not almost sell the child to the Empire for the steel your armor is made from? Shameful isn’t it? Don’t you feel the shame for the armor you wear?” Gideon's voice is low, and Din can picture the lazy smile curling at his lips. “It’s funny almost, your camaraderie with the Jedi.”

“What about it?” Din grits. A streak of protectiveness crackles it’s way through him when Gideon mentions Luke. “You’re terrified of him. You would rather die than face him.”

“Of course,” Gideon says, “Who wouldn’t be terrified of the man who killed Darth Vader?” 

“He’s powerful, and played a big role in the fall of the empire.” Din admits. He doesn’t know what Gideon is trying to do. “And so far he’s done nothing to harm any of us.” And he wouldn’t Din thinks.

“He’s as much my enemy as he is yours,” Gideon says. “The Jedi killed and conquered your people. Do you not fear them?”

Din ignores him, tapping his fingers over his blaster. Silence falls over the cell block, only punctuated by Din’s tapping. Does he fear Luke? No. Does he fear the Jedi? Again he thinks the answer is no. He was raised where Jedi were called enemy sorcerers, but he had only met two so far, and both had helped him in ways he could not have imagined.

“He’s his son you know. The Jedi is Darth Vader's son. He killed his own father.” Gideon’s voice holds more glee then Din thinks it should.

“I have no place to judge him for that,” Din grunts. 

“Oh of course,” Gideon is chuckling again and it grates on Din’s nerves. “If they’re imperial why not kill them? You have little regard for the lives of the troopers you mow down. To you they’re just faceless game pieces. You’re the same thing aren’t you Din? A faceless game piece?”

“ The empire never cared about their troops, did you not kill your own men?” Din throws back. 

Gideon laughs, “Oh but Din, we aren’t supposed to be the good guys are we?”

“Why do you need the kid?” Din grunts. He’s tired of Gideon's soft words and curling sneers. 

“Order.” Gideon mutters.

Din sighs softly dropping his blaster back into it’s holster. “There is no order in this galaxy and there never will be. No one can force one order on a galaxy such as this. Anyone who believes that is foolish.”

“What do you hope to achieve? Do you think you can raise that baby by yourself? I’ve seen his medical records, you’ll be dead before he is even a child.”

“So be it.” Din says. Grogu’s slow growth had already laid testament to this statement. “But I will raise him to that point. I will love him until that point.”

“You’ll damn him. You’re nothing Din, and when you finally realize this you’ll run away. Like you always do.” Gideon’s voice is louder, closer to the door. “We know Din. I know your face, I know the creed you swore and broke, and I know the terror you’re feeling right now. It eats at you, doesn’t it? _You don’t know who you are anymore_.”

Din steps away from the door. His blaster shakes shamefully in his grip, “How?” it comes out weak and fragile even to his own ears. Gideon’s laugh sounds a little hysterical, ringing in a roundabout echo around his cell and down the hall. 

“I told you Din, assume I know _everything._ ”

Din leaves, shamefully, fear tearing through him. He feels stupid for letting himself talk to Gideon for as long as he did. It’s fine he tells himself. It’s okay. Gideon can’t harm Grogu anymore. It’s _fine._ The little voice in his head sounds so unsure Din’s fast pace down the hall turns into a full on sprint. Sliding into the hangar where Luke’s ship still sits he lets himself breath at the sight of Grogu looking up, ears perking as Din’s rowdy entrance startles him. He gurgles and reaches for his little hand opening and closing. Din crosses the room in a few short strides and picks him up. 

Grogu stays on the planet with Luke’s droid after that, looking towards the monolith like building ears up, eyes bright. 

It takes hours. Until the sky has turned a lovely shade of violet as the sun go down. The air comes alive with the buzz of insects and the trench dug into the soft land on the outskirts of a wetland fills with bodies. Din aches, his back in agony from carrying corpses down through the thin air of the atmosphere. They’ve worked in stony silence. Cara in charge of digging the trench, her hair and skin drenched in sweat, she smiled a little ruefully at Din as he deposited another body. It flops into the trench grossly, Din groans, in pain and disgust.

“How many more?” Cara asks, she peers over his shoulder at the ship. Din shudders out a sigh and shrugs.

“Not too many.”

Stars he doesn’t recognize are out by the time they finish. Koska collapses to the ground throwing her helmet aside and pulling her hair out of it’s intricate design with near savage fingers. Bo-Katan follows her, pulling off her helmet and staring with a heaving chest at the fresh dirt. The air is ripe with the smell of damp soil and evening. Din kneels, pressing a hand to the earth and uttering a few words. Words of thanks to the planet and words of stilted and awkward farewells to the people he had helped kill. He tries no to think. At all. Because he’s still angry. Angry at these imperials, angry at the danger they’ve put him and his baby in. Angry that he had to kill them all. So he doesn’t think. He just says the words and thanks the planet and stands to walk back to where Grogu is. 

He builds a fire, adds the aroma of the blue sap that leeks from trees to the air. Grogu watches curled in his arms, as the flames dance against his visor and the golden swaying grasses around them. Din watches the monolith. Waits with his heart in his throat and dread in his stomach to see if Luke will reappear. The part of him that has had to let go of too many things he’s grown to love whispers that he is gone. That taste of sweet grass and laughter that he had gotten was just a fleeting thing. He thinks he might just go crazy if he loses Luke here. 

To pass the time as he waits he talks to Grogu, leaving his helmet on even when Grogu pawed at it. Cara was too close, just a little ways off sitting slumped under the shelter of a tree eyes alert. When the beast calls out into the night she readies her weapon. Din waves her down.

“It meant no harm. We aren’t here to take it from it’s home. Leave it be.”

The fire pops, sending sparks up into the stars before melding with them. Grogu reaches for them, far enough away that Din has no fear he will be burned.

“Can you feel him?” Din asks quietly. Grogu coos, softly. “I hope we can make something out of ourselves.” Din murmurs. He slumps to the ground, laying on his side and placing Grogu close to the warmth of his stomach, encircling him in Luke’s cloak that he brought back with him. “You don’t mind do you? I know it’s just been the two of us for a while, I don’t think things will be much different though.” he traces a pattern into the ground beneath him. “I lost the Crest.” admitting it to his baby is hard, and maybe he wasn’t obligated to, but it was another thing torn away from Grogu as much as it was torn away from him. “I’m just glad I got you back.” Grogu’s reply is warbled in a mix of purrs and odd little words. Din promises to himself that he’ll learn to understand Grogu better. 

Din looks over his shoulder at Cara, “Sleep,” he calls. She jolts, looking towards him. “I’ll keep first watch. Rest now.”

She obliges a few minutes later, crossing her arms over her chest and propping her head against the tree. Din keeps watch. The planet is oddly alive even at night. Grass swishing in the wind, water lapping in a repetitive manner against the banks of the ponds. Animals, small and large linger around the circle of their camp, or fly overhead in curious circles. Grogu stays awake with him, mimicking the sounds he hears, reaching for things in the dark that Din can’t see. They watch together and wait together. 

The ground is freezing where it presses into Din’s side. Grogu had climbed up onto his chest now bunched under his chin both swathed in the dark material of Luke’s cloak. The ground is cold and the night grows old when he sees the flash of silver. The spear illuminates half gold half silver in the light of the fire and the light of the stars. Din sits up to greet him as he steps into the firelight. He bears something new into the familiar night. It cuts through the noise and leaves an odd silence behind. Blue eyes look shadowed and haunted. Din holds out his arms before he can think better of it, before his body can register how _unnatural_ it feels. The spear is placed reverently by the fire pit as Luke folds himself into Din’s embrace. 

Din squeezes his eyes shut, his arms tightening around Luke’s shoulders. He feels complete again. With both Grogu and Luke in his arms, breathing and solid and real.

“You were gone for a long time,” Din says. It’s not accusatory and Luke hums, curling ever tighter against Din.

“I didn’t realize.” Luke’s voice seems almost fragile. The confidence and light that had been behind all of his words dulled by whatever he had seen. 

“What was in there?” Din asks. Luke goes completely pliant against him. They’re pressed close and Din’s body sings with the contact. He has to remind himself to breath, has to switch off the side of his brain that screams danger.

“I saw a lot.” Luke tilts up his chin to look at Din fully. “I saw where I must go. What I must do.”

“What is it?”

  
Luke’s eyes fall back to Din’s breast plate. “There are children. Like Grogu. Who have the force, who are all in danger.”

“In danger?”

“Yes. That temple held a record of children of the force it was stolen too long ago for me to save them, but the hunt continues. I think it’s time I look for children to fill my school.” It doesn’t take the force to read the hesitation and fear that exudes from Luke. Din reaches up to knock up Luke’s chin.

“What are you afraid of telling me?”

“Din,” Luke licks over his lips and Din wants to kiss him again. “I don’t know where it will take me. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone or what I’ll face or-”

Din lifts his helmet just enough, to impatient for anything else, to silence the flow of words falling from Luke’s lips. It works. Luke makes a startled little huffing noise, before placing his fingertips against Din’s chin to kiss him deeper.

“Where, for however long, forever if it has to be, I’m staying with you. You can’t scare me off that easily.” Din’s lips brush against Luke’s as he promises and to him they sound like wedding vows. Luke presses his forehead against Din’s.

“You mean it?”

Din laughs, perhaps too loudly for the silence they’re surrounded in. “I mean it. Anywhere Luke.” he sighs a little bit, “I’m not done running yet.”

“Then I guess we had better keep going.”

“I spoke to Gideon,” Din says a little hesitantly. They’d been sitting in silence, Din’s helmet sitting on the ground next to them, and Luke’s face tucked into the crook of his neck. 

“Oh?”

“It was by accident I suppose. I shouldn’t have stood there and let him talk.”

“What did he say?”

Din leans his cheek against Luke’s hair. It smells like grass and sun tinged at the edges by the smoke from the campfire. “He reminded me that I’m not sure about who I am anymore. He’s right, I just wouldn’t let myself think about it.”

“Din,” it’s Luke’s turn to gently guide their eyes to meet. “You’re Grogu’s father, and a good man. You haven’t lost yourself, maybe just found new parts of it.”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

Luke smiles a bit of the the exhausted look leaving his eyes, “Did he say anything else?”

Din debates. If what Gideon had said about Luke was true perhaps he shouldn’t mention it. Luke stiffens against him.

“He mentioned my father.” his voice is carefully emotionless, his face carefully blank.

“Someone called Darth Vader,” The way Luke flinches makes Din want to scoop the words out of the air and eat them again. 

“My father.”

“I don’t know anything about him,” Din admits, trying to make the situation a little less strenuous. It works as Luke laughs falling against him once again.

“Only you could have no idea who Darth Vader was. He tormented the galaxy, at the emperor's side.”

“He doesn’t sound like your father.” Din says. Luke hums.

“I never knew him as such. Not really. He had turned away from the light side of the force. He was evil.” Luke admits it like it pains him.

“Gideon said you killed him.”

“I didn’t,” Luke says, “I tried to save him. I-I couldn’t, and in some ways I am glad I could not. There would be no pardon for the lives he took and the crimes he committed. He was finally at peace.” as if like an afterthought Luke adds, “I talk to him often now.”

“You talk to him often.” Din asks slowly. Luke looks a little wary as he nods.

“I’ll explain to you later. It can sometimes be a lot to take in.”

Din lowers them to the ground, Luke rearranging Grogu so he is covered by the cloak completely. His ear is pressed against Din's heart over the metal of his armor. 

“It wouldn’t have changed anything, it still doesn’t,” Din whispers. “Your father, or what happened in the past.”

“Thank you Din.” Luke presses tired lips to beskar. 

The valley sleeps. The fire crackles, and Din lays awake.

**Author's Note:**

> ...
> 
> I have very little words to say about this expect what the hell even is this??? I don't know. I just needed the bodies on the ship taken care of, they were weirding me out. Also I couldn't break the pattern and write two Luke chapters in a row, so you get what ever this mess of anxiety and exhaustion is. I swear the Luke chapter is going to be a lot better and then we'll get the show on the road because plot is being revealed. Slowly but surely.
> 
> I have been gifted with beautiful poems being written for each one of these installments. If you haven't already, please, PLEASE go check them out on the other pieces. They truly are absolutely beautiful and I cried reading all of them.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has read and left comments and kudos. You have absolutely no idea how it makes me feel. Thank you all so much.
> 
> Much love and see you next installment maybe sooner then expected~ Insomniac 
> 
> Instagram@dreamers.drabbles
> 
> ohhh, I also think Listen to Your Heart by DHT is a FANTASTIC dinluke song.


End file.
